GRAND BOULEVARD — The neighborhood is getting a new housing complex with retail space, a rooftop garden and more thanks to funding from the city’s Invest South/West initiative.
The Legacy District is a $19.2 million project that will turn .6 acres of vacant land at 47th Street and Vincennes Avenue into a six-story building, according to the city. It’s led by KMW Communities and LG Development with Bronzeville Community Partners.
The project’s building will have 12,000 square feet of commercial space and 25 mixed-income residential units.
The project will create 174 permanent jobs and 140 temporary construction jobs, according to the city. Several developers pitched projects for the 47th Street site, but Mayor Lori Lightfoot announced the Legacy District proposal was chosen during a Monday news conference.
Aside from housing and retail, the 74,760-square-foot building will also include covered parking, communal roof gardens and a rooftop farm. Community partners YWCA and DePaul University will also run a women of color entrepreneurship center on the site.
Department of Planning and Development Commissioner Maurice Cox told Block Club it was the team’s approach to wealth building that made their proposal stand out.
They responded to something Ald. Pat Dowell (3rd) really wanted to test, Cox said. “‘Could Bronzeville support ownership?’ One of the cornerstones of The Legacy District’s strategy is that they’re offering [25] units of housing that are all ownership,” Cox said.
Cox added that the selection process was helped by community evaluators who joined the technical team evaluators of city staff to offer their insight and expertise, which led to the decision to allow the runner-up, 47th/Vincennes Partnership, to explore the possibility of implementing parts of their proposal on adjacent city-owned land. Those details should be announced later this year.
KMW Communities Founder Bill Williams and Bronzeville Community Partners LLC’s Paula Robinson, who attended Monday’s event, thanked the mayor for her support and Alds. Dowell and Sophia King (4th) for “seeing the vision.”
“This is a generational opportunity that’s going to yield benefits for years to come,” said Williams.
Another city-owned vacant lot farther west along the 47th corridor will be the future home of United Yards, the winning pitch from Celadon Partners and the Blackwood Group that would revive New City/Back of the Yards.
The $51.5 million, 15,000 square-foot joint venture would transform the lot at 1515 W. 47th St. into a 50-unit affordable apartment building with a ground floor business hub and youth programming space.
A largely vacant, four-story commercial building at 4701 S. Ashland Ave. would be redeveloped into 30 senior rental apartments and a ground-floor coffee shop, while a pair of affordable, three-flat buildings would be built on another vacant lot at 1641 W. 47th St.
Read more about the latest round of Invest South/West projects being funded here.
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